


Antiseptic Tundra

by Reioka



Series: Flash Fics [17]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: But He Gets Better, Flash Fic, M/M, Major Character Injury, Nebulous Setting, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 20:41:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15957125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reioka/pseuds/Reioka
Summary: There was an explosion. Bucky isn't sure what to do beyond keep moving.





	Antiseptic Tundra

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the sentence prompt: “I thought you were dead.”

Antiseptic Tundra

 

Bucky had blood on his hands. Why did he have blood on his hands?

 

There had been an explosion. Something–it had been big.

 

Bucky took stock. He still had both legs. Both arms, such as they were. It was sticky on his face–blood, a wound in his scalp. Debris from the explosion? Perhaps. He did not feel anything lodged in the wound. He could stand. He examined his torso. No injuries there. He still had his guns, knives, and body armor. He looked around.

 

Tundra, as far as the eye could see.

 

Something niggled at the back of Bucky’s mind. There had been an explosion. A big one? Perhaps. He saw no evidence of it here. He  _did_  see something in the snow. He picked it up before he could lose sight of it again. It looked like a metal finger, a scuffed up red. It almost matched the blood on his hands.

 

 _Tony,_  Bucky thought vaguely, lifting his head to look around again. But Tony wasn’t there. He saw something else glinting in the snow several feet away though. More red. Another digit. Bucky saw another red glint. He walked toward that too.

 

When he’d put together a full gauntlet, he turned, surveying his course through the snow. A straight line. He backtracked, but found no armor in the other direction. He decided to keep moving after the pieces of armor. Hypothermia victims would shed their clothes in confusion. Perhaps he would find Tony if he kept going.

 

If not, perhaps he would find Tony’s body.

 

Bucky put together an entire arm, part of the torso. His head throbbed. He wondered why the wound wasn’t healing. He tilted his head, considering. Perhaps his body was working harder to keep warm. That was probably more important than a head wound that wasn’t limiting him.

 

It was very cold. Tony was probably dead.

 

Bucky kept moving, found a second arm. The hips and groin.

 

The armor would make a good coffin, Bucky thought. Stopped. He didn’t know where that thought had come from. He’d never had it before. Bucky had been horrified when Tony had joked about it, had told him to never joke like that again.

 

Tony would probably never be able to make any joke like that again.

 

Bucky’s head throbbed. He kept moving. He put together both legs. Found the reactor. Put it in the chest casing, but nothing happened. Kept dragging the armor behind him. It didn’t feel terribly heavy. Maybe he’d just gone numb. He wished his head would go numb, too.

 

Bucky only stopped when he found the helmet, staring down at it. The gold mask had been cracked. He set the armor up so it was standing, then reached down to pick the helmet up. He thought if Tony was here, he’d do something dumb like be incredibly theatric.  _Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Bucky._

 

But Tony was probably dead.

 

Bucky turned and carefully sat the helmet on the armor. It let out a little hiss as it connected, whirring as the arc reactor buzzed to life, lights glowing in the helmet. He stared at it for a moment. His head throbbed.

 

“Thanks, Buckaroo,” the armor said. “But you gotta wake up now.”

 

Bucky blinked at the armor slowly. His head throbbed.

 

The armor lifted its gauntlets, one palm gently coming up to cradle his cheek, the other gently brushing his hair away from the throbbing’s epicenter. “Come on, Bucky-bear. Wake up.”

 

“My head hurts,” Bucky slurred. His words weren’t coming out right. Maybe he was getting hypothermia.

 

Maybe he was going to die.

 

“I know, sweetheart,” the armor said gently. “But they’ve got your stabilized now. So you need to wake up, okay? Come on, baby. Let me see those beautiful storm clouds.”

 

Bucky frowned. Shouldn’t the armor be able to see his eyes already? They were already open. Maybe he should just close them and open them again, so the armor could… could reset and see his eyes.

 

Bucky closed his eyes and took a deep breath, let it out slowly. He could hear beeping. He frowned again, irritated and confused. Why would the armor make that noise? He opened his eyes again.

 

The tundra was gone. Instead all he saw were bright white walls. There was a machine. It wasn’t the Iron Man armor. It was beeping. He stared at it, wondering if he could get away with shooting it since it wasn’t the armor. But… he didn’t have his guns on him anymore. Not even a knife.

 

Bucky heard a sob. He turned his head on the pillow. It was harder than he thought it should be.

 

“Oh honey,” Tony whispered, smiling, but tears were filling his eyes quickly. “I thought you were dead.”

 

“…’splosion,” Bucky rasped.

 

“Yeah. There was an explosion. You got hit in the head really hard, sweetie,” Tony answered softly. “But you’re okay now. You’re gonna be okay.”

 

Bucky was silent for a few minutes, considering, before he attempted a smile and whispered, “Hi.”

 

Tony let out a watery bark of laughter. “Hi, sweetheart. Hi. I’m so glad you’re awake.”

 

“Love you,” Bucky told him firmly.

 

Tony lifted his hand to cup his cheek, smiling. “Love you too, honey.”

 

Bucky tried to press a kiss to his hand and mostly failed, but Tony continued smiling at him, so he figured it was okay.

 

His head throbbed. But Tony was definitely alive. And so was Bucky.


End file.
